Daily Math Challenge Problems
#1:
In a class, 50 students will present their art projects. The students have two
options. They may present individually for 15 minutes, or a group of 5
students may present for 20 minutes. If 20 of the students choose to present
their projects individually and the rest of the students work in groups of 5,
how long will it take for all the students to present their work?
#2:
Santa is trying to solve a problem. He has only one night to travel around
the Earth to deliver presents. His sleigh travels 1,000 miles per hour (mph).
How many hours will it take him to travel around the Earth? Can he do it in
one night? What information do you need to research before you can solve
this problem?
#3:
Elah can make 400 meatballs with 2 packages of meat. Each package costs
1.99 per ounce (oz.). There are 16 ounces in each package. She has another
option. She can buy 2 pounds (lbs.) of meat for $59.00. Which is the better
buy?
#4:
Christian has a new job. His boss says he will pay him $3.47 per hour for 40
hours of work, OR he will pay $200 for 50 hours of work. Which affords
Christian the better pay?
#5:
Jackson is buying a new car. He can pay $363 per month for three years,
OR he can pay $12,000 up front and have no monthly payments. What
should he do?
#6:
Mrs. Melson’s class is working on holiday ornaments. She will give the 27
students a total of 1,890 beads or each student may have 50 beads each.
Which option will give the students the most beads?
#7:
At Hollister Elementary School, Mrs. Wolfe's 3rd grade students line
up in a row. If Matt is # 14 counting from the front of the line, and # 8
counting from the back of the line. How many students are in the
line?
Back
Front
................
#8:
How many 3-digit numbers can you make using the following digits?
Use each number no more than once in each number.
3, 5, 8
#9:
A pool is 10 meters long and 8 meters wide. If you place flower pots
around the pool 1 meter apart, center to center, how many flower
pots do you need? (There should be a flower pot at each corner of
the pool.)
#10:
A fruit vendor sold 198 kg of apples on the first day. On the 2nd day,
he sold 24 kg more than he did on the first day. On the 3rd day, he
sold 12 kg less than he sold on the 2nd day. On the 4th day, he sold
29 kg more than what he sold on the 3rd day. How many kgs of
apples did the farmer sell all 4 days together?
#11:
October 22nd is a Monday. What day is December 22nd in the same
year?
#12:
The following pattern is repeated. What is the color of square 81?
#13:
One piece of lumber was cut to 4 feet long pieces. 5 cuts were made.
How long was the lumber?
#14:
Add +, - , x and/or ( ) signs in the spaces to the left side of the "="
sign to make the equations work.
a) 1 1 3 8 = 24
b) 6 5 4 6 = 24
#15:
Find the sequence and fill in the blanks.
a) 3, 4, 6, 9, 13, __, 24
b) 1, 2, 5, 10, __, 26, __
c) 6, 8, 12, 18, __, 36
d)
45, 30, 18, 9, __, 0
#16:
A retirement home is going to plant trees around a square shaped
pool that is 50 feet on each side. The trees are 5 feet apart. How
many trees do they need to plant?
#17:
The 2nd pattern has 4 congruent triangles. The 3rd pattern has 9
congruent triangles. (Congruent triangles are the same size and
shape.)
a) What should the 4th pattern look like?
b) How many congruent triangles are there in the 4th pattern?
1
2
3
#18:
Marcia and Sammie are mowing their yards, which are the exact
same size. Marcia can mow hers in 6 minutes, but it takes Sammie 9
minutes to do the job. At what time will Sammie have exactly twice
as much to mow as Marcia?
#19:
A thermometer has 4 lines showing between the numbers printed on
it. If the mercury (red mark) has reached the third line between 20
and 30 degrees Fahrenheit, what is the temperature?
#20:
Betty wants to spend only $3.00 at the store. She buys 4 items. Two
of the items cost 1/3 of the total each. How much does each of the
other items cost?
#21:
1. 1.0
2. 0.01
3. 0.1
4. 0.110
5. None of the above.
#22:
The figure below is a model for the multiplication sentence.
Which division sentence is modeled by the same figure?
1.
2.
3.
4.
#23:
Which of the following is used to find out how many inches are in 5
feet?
1.
2.
3.
4.
How do you know?
#24:
Marcia spent 300 minutes working on her science project. How many
hours did she spend on her science project?
1.
2.
3.
4.
220 hours
5 hours
25 hours
6 hours
How do you know?
#25:
A pair of earrings costs $9.00 a pair. A package of 3 costs $21. What
is the difference in the unit cost? How much do you save if you buy
two packages instead of 6 individual pairs?
#26:
The store sells flour in 1-lb, 5-lb, and 10-lb bags. What is the fewest
number of bags to buy to get 25 lb of flour? Show your work!
#27:
Samantha is training for a marathon. She needs to run 3 hours every
day. She ran 68 minutes after breakfast, 39 minutes before lunch, 47
minutes after lunch, 12 minutes before dinner, and 18 minutes after
dinner. Did she make her daily goal? Why or why not?
#28:
Darnell wants to buy breakfast for his friend. Eggs cost $.58 each.
Pancakes are $.75 each, and juice is $.37 per glass. If he buys her 3
eggs, 2 pancakes, and one glass of juice, how much will it cost?
If he pays with $10.00, how much change will he receive?
#29:
Bryn has a magic money box.
Every day the box doubles the number of coins placed inside of it.
Bryn put in 3 pennies on Monday.
She looked inside her box on Friday.
How many pennies did Bryn see?
#30:
A number machine changes the value of the numbers placed inside it. My
number machine will add 15 to a number and then subtract 6 from the sum.
If I put in the number 68, what number will come out of the machine?
I put another number into my machine. The machine added 15 and then
subtracted 6. The number 35 came out of the machine. What number did I
put in?
#31:
Jordon has a different kind of number machine. Her machine doubles the
number and adds 3 more. So when Jordon put in 25, the number 53 came
out of the machine. Jordon put in the number 16. What number do you
think came out of her machine?
Try these: In: 3 Out: 11
In: 4 Out 14
In: 7 Out: 23
#32:
Start with 1,247.
Add 4,000 + 400 + 50 + 3.
Subtract one thousand, two hundred twenty seven.
Add four hundreds, two tens and 47 ones.
Multiply by 3.
What is your number? Is this number odd or even?
#33:
Mary’s class is working on an art project. Each student needs 2 feet 3 inches
of yarn. If John, James, and Bill work together, how much yarn will they
need in INCHES? How many INCHES will 5 students need?
#34:
Convert the following:
4 feet = _____ inches
3 yards = ______ feet
24 inches = ______ feet
4 pints = _____ gallons
6 quarts = _______ gallons
2 meters = _____ centimeters
200 centimeters = ______ millimeters
#35:
How many faces does a cylinder have?
How many vertices does a rectangular prism have?
How many vertices does a cube have?
#36:
Indy Car Museum Visitors
Day
# of 3rd Graders
# of 2nd Graders
Friday
408
511
Saturday
515
348
Sunday
728
639
rd
Estimate the total number of 3 graders that visited the museum.
Did more 2nd or 3rd graders visit? How many more?
How many students visited on the weekend?
#37:
In a game of croquet, Tashon scored 95 points. Tamara scored 103
points, and Wayne scored 73 points.
**Write a number sentence to show how many FEWER points Wayne
scored than Tamara.
**Write a number sentence that shows how to find how many more points
Tashon will need to earn 300 points.
**Write a number sentence to show how many points the students earned in
ALL.
#38:
Look at these numbers:
809 73
204
52
781
What is the sum of the greatest odd number and the least even number?
What is the difference between the greatest even number and the least odd
number?
What is the product of the greatest even number and the greatest odd
number?
#39:
Tim makes yo-yos. He made 3 yo-yos on Monday, 6 on Tuesday, and 9 on
Wednesday. If the pattern continues, how many will he have made by
Sunday?
He uses 24 inches of string for each yo-yo. How many FEET of string will
he need to make ALL the yo-yos?
#40:
Write this number three different ways:
679
Hundreds
Tens
Ones
Add your totals to make sure each way equals 679.
#41:
What is the perimeter of a quadrilateral that is 18 inches long and 14 inches
wide?
What is the area of the same shape?
CONVERT both numbers to FEET. What is the SUM in FEET?
#42:
Jim’s Toys
Planes
Whistles
Yo-Yos
219
547
Jim has 1,047 toys in all. How many whistles does he have?
Jim’s sister, Sarah, has three times as many whistles as he does. How many
does Sarah have?
#43:
James begins tennis practice at 8:28 a.m. every morning. He practices for 2
hrs. and 37 minutes. What time does he finish practicing?
#44:
Sonja practices the piano for 48 minutes each day. Tonja, her twin sister,
practices twice as long as Sonja. Their brother, A.J., practices as much as
both girls together.
How long do Tonja and A.J. practice individually?
How long do they practice together? Convert the total to hours and minutes.
#45:
Write two addition sentences to show this multiplication sentence:
11 x 3 = 33
#46:
Draw a rhombus. Show all the lines of symmetry.
How many lines of symmetry does this shape have?
#47:
Three students are studying for the spelling bee. Thomas studied for 4
hours. Debbie studied 200 minutes. Mabel studied a total of 2 hours.
Compare the amount of time the students studied. Order them from LEAST
to GREATEST time studied.
How many MINUTES did they study in ALL? How many HOURS and
MINUTES is this total?
#48:
Mr. Walker wants to give a pair of students a chance to be hall monitors for
the class. He puts six names in a hat. He draws two names at a time. What
DIFFERENT PAIRS of names could be drawn? The names are:
Sally
Ginger
Tyler
Raymond
Isabelle
Abigail
#49:
Mckenzie was working on math. She had some base ten blocks. She
showed three hundreds, four tens, and seven ones. Her teacher gave her 17
more tens.
How much does she have now? Draw a picture of the blocks.
Show two ways to make this number using this chart:
Hundreds
Tens
Ones
#50:
Use this chart to answer the questions.
Day
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Practice Time
27 minutes
32 minutes
20 minutes
30 minutes
?
Jenny practiced a total of 143 minutes. How many minutes did she practice
on Friday?
How many HOURS and MINUTES did she practice in ALL?
#51:
Caitlyn has $12.51 in her pocket now. She bought a toy for $1.58, a
sandwich for $2.37, and a drink for $.58. How much money did she have
before she bought those items?
#52:
Use this table to solve the problems.
Student
Kara
Sammy
Lionel
Time Worked
2 hrs. 10 min.
3 hrs. 45 min.
4 hrs. 25 min.
Minutes
Convert the TOTAL time worked for each student to MINUTES.
How many hours and minutes did Sammy and Lionel work in all?
How many more MINUTES did Lionel work than Kara?
#53:
Steven worked on homework for 1/3 of an hour. Teddy completed his work
in ½ of an hour? Who took less time to finish his work? How many
minutes did each boy work?
#54:
Elah and Miah are recycling cans. Each girl has collected 5/10 of a pound.
How many pounds did they collect together (Hint: Write a fraction)?
Convert this fraction to a whole number.
#55:
Jackson jogs 3/12 of a mile on weekends and 8/12 of a mile on weekdays.
Write an equation (expression) that shows how much more he jogs on
weekdays than on weekends?
#56:
Place six quarters in a row. Replace every other coin with a dime. Replace
every third coin with a nickel. What is the value of the six coins now? How
much more or less money do you have than when you started? Were any
coins not replaced? Why or why not?
#57:
Each honeybee has 5 eyes! Three honeybees are circling a flower. How
many bee eyes are around the flower? Five honeybees are returning to the
hive with nectar. How many bee eyes are returning to the hive? Now there is
a total of 30 bee eyes in the flower garden. How many honeybees are in the
garden?
#58:
Ty works in the summer for his dad, 5 days a week for 4 weeks. His dad
offers to pay him $125 a week. Instead, Ty offers to work for $0.01 the first
day, $0.02 the second day, $0.04 the third day, $0.08 the fourth day, and so
on. Should Ty's dad accept his offer? Explain.
#59:
Chef Fracto has 9 cups of milk. He uses 1/2 of the milk plus 1/2 cup to make
pancakes. He uses 1/2 of what is left plus 1/2 cup to make French toast.
Next, he uses 1/2 of what is left plus 1/2 cup to make muffins. How much
milk does he use for each of the three recipes? How much milk is left?
#60:
Cale has a choice of whether to get paid in pennies, nickels, dimes, or
quarters. For each type of coin, he will receive the following amounts: 1,000
pennies, 200 nickels, 450 dimes, or 41 quarters. Which type of coin should
he choose if he wants to get paid the greatest amount of money?
#61:
In February 1998, Cindy Jackson of London, England, bought a Bengal cat
for $41,435 (U.S. Dollars). How long would you have to save your
allowance in order to save that amount of money? Suppose every person in
your class saved $15 a week. How long would it take the class to purchase
the cat?
#62:
Mak found more than 50 3-cent and 5-cent stamps in a desk. His uncle
needed 87¢ worth of postage to mail a package and asked Mak if he could
use some of these stamps. How many different combinations of the stamps
could Mak give his uncle to make exactly 87¢ of postage?
#63:
How many eights would you write down if you wrote all of the whole
numbers from 1 to 100? How could you find this answer without having to
write all the numbers and count them? If you counted a different digit,
would you have the same number? Explain your thinking.
#64:
Carl Gauss quickly solved this problem when he was 10 years old: "Find the
sum of the first 100 counting numbers." Try it. How long does it take you to
solve the problem? Look up information about Carl Gauss and see if you can
find out how he solved the problem.
#65:
Discover how much your first name is worth if every consonant has a value
of $5 and vowels are $10. Choose two classmates and calculate their names’
values. What is the total value of all three of your names?
#66:
Pea plants usually produce 5 or 6 peas in each pod. Suppose a pea plant had
5 pods and a total of 26 peas. How many of its pods would have only 5
peas? How many of its pods would have 6 peas? How many peas could a
pea plant have if it had 6 pods?
#67:
A zookeeper was promised that she could have some special animals called
mathemals as soon as she builds a pen for them. She has 20 feet of fence to
use for the pen. What type of pen can she build? How many different types
of pens can she build?
#68:
The longest presidency in U.S. history was Franklin D. Roosevelt’s (from
March 4, 1933, until April 12, 1945). He served three full terms and died
early in his fourth term. How many days did he hold office? Record your
thinking.
#69:
The hour and minute hands of the clock overlap at exactly 12:00, and also at
other times during a 24-hour period. How many times during the day does
this happen? How many times during the day do the two hands of the clock
form a right angle?
#70:
The Chinese calendar gives each year a different animal name. There are 12
animals in the cycle. The year 2006 was the Year of the Dog. What is the
next year that will be the Year of the Dog? What was the last Year of the
Dog before 2006?
#71:
Benjamin Banneker was an African-American mathematician who wrote a
series of almanacs that were published from 1791–1797. Farmers relied on
the almanacs for weather forecasts and planting times. To relax, Banneker
loved to collect and solve mathematics puzzles. Try solving this puzzle: A
frog fell in a well that was 20 feet deep. Each day he climbed 3 feet up the
well’s sides. At night he slid back down 1 foot. How many days did it take
him to climb out of the well?
#72:
Five curious cats went exploring in a freshly painted room. Four got paint on
their front paws and one got paint on its back paws. How many paws didn't
have any paint on them?
#73:
The record for the farthest women's long jump is about 7 1/2 meters, set by
Calina Chistyakova in Russia. How many centimeters is this? How many
millimeters?
#74:
Imagine that you have one penny, one nickel, and one dime. What amounts
of money can you make using one, two, or all three coins? If you add other
coins (a penny, a nickel, a half-dollar or a dime), how will your answer
change?
#75:
Imagine that you are a hungry ant trying to get yourself and 99 friends to a
picnic. Think about all the different ways 100 ants could march in rows and
columns. Organize this information in a table and look for a pattern.
#76:
The Summer Olympic Games have occurred every four years since 1896,
except 1940 and 1944. How many Summer Olympic Games have been held?
How many Summer Olympic Games have occurred since you were born?
#77:
Gobble, Gobble:
A small flock of wild turkeys can eat 50 pounds of cracked corn in a week.
If they ate the same amount every day, how many pounds would they eat
each day? How many pounds would they eat in one month?
#78:
If a new neighbor moves in with pet dogs and birds, how many animals can
there be if there are 10 legs altogether? Is there more than one answer?
#79:
The oldest living woman is Kamato Hongo of Japan. She is 115 years old.
How many months has she lived? How many days (not considering leap
years)? How many hours? How many minutes?
#80:
Scientists have used the distance between each fossil footprint to estimate
how fast dinosaurs moved. They estimate that dinosaurs such as
Tyrannosaurus Rex could run about 25 miles per hour. About how far could
T. Rex run in 3 hours? About how far could T. Rex run in 30 minutes?
#81:
Shelley bought some items at the store. She bought a bracelet for $2.50.
She spent three times as much as the bracelet cost on a necklace. The
matching earrings cost ½ of what the bracelet did. She paid with $20.00.
How much change did she get back?
#82:
This problem was created by Reagan G. and Abby O. (2014):
Reagan was riding her horse. She jumped the horse for 15 minutes. She and
the horse then trotted for one hour. After that, they walked for 25 minutes
and cantered for 47 minutes. It took 17 minutes to put the horse away. If
Reagan finished at 11:26 a.m., what time did she start?
#83:
This problem was created by Elliott and Graham (2014):
Cooper has been studying. He finished at 5:28 p.m. If he practiced for 17
minutes, talked to his teacher for 52 minutes, and spent time thinking for 35
minutes, what time did he start?
#84:
Mrs. Melson’s class decided to buy some treats for everyone to share. They
bought Smarties which cost $8.98 per bag and Starburst which cost $9.18
per bag. They also purchased chocolate bars which were half the price of
the Smarties and Starburst combined. If they paid with a $50.00 bill, how
much change did they receive?
#85:
Write 1,457 in word form and expanded form. Show three other ways to
show this number without using 1 thousand, 4 hundreds, 5 tens, and 7 ones.
#86:
Write this standard number in expanded notation:
236
#87:
What’s the rule?
Number in: 4
Number in: 12
Number in: 36
Number out: 8
Number out: 24
Number out: 72
#88:
What information is not needed? Solve the problem.
Tom runs 4 miles every other day. His record for running is 3 miles
per day. If Tom runs two weeks, how many miles will he run?
#89:
What information is missing?
Miah likes to jump rope. She can jump 27 times in one minute. How
many times did she jump?
#90:
Two lines cross to form a “t”. We say the lines are
______________________ to one another.
#91:
Two lines follow the same path at exactly the same distance from one
another. We say the lines are ___________________ to one another.
#92:
A __________________________ is part of a line. Draw one.
#93:
Convert 330 minutes to hours.
#94:
Draw tally marks to represent 47?
#95:
Mrs. Melson’s class visited the animal shelter to see the animals that were
available for adoption. They counted 24 animals in all.
• 1/3 of the animals were dogs.
• The rest were cats.
• How many dogs were at the shelter?
• How many cats were at the shelter?
#96:
The ants are marching in the annual parade. There are 12 ants. They must
march in equal rows and each row must have more than one ant.
• Show all the different ways the ants can march in the parade.
• How many different ways can they march?
(Hint: Draw an array. Remember—an array has rows and columns.)
#97:
Matt earns $.75 for every 1/3 mile he walks. Matt earned $4.50. How far
did he walk?
#98:
Devon ate 12/4 of the pies. How many pies did he eat?
#99:
John started playing soccer at 5:10 p.m. He quit at 7:37 p.m. How long did
he play? (Hint: Make a T-chart for elapsed time.)
#100:
How many hours are there in one week, three and one-half days?
#101:
Paula broke half as many balloons as Graham. Altogether they broke 18
balloons. How many did Graham break?
#102:
My mom said I could have all the nickels and dimes in her wallet.
Altogether I have $1.35. How many nickels and dimes do I have?
#103:
Jill wants to buy a new skateboard. It costs $48.60. Right now she has 1/3
of the money. How much does she have? How much more does she need?
#104:
James is learning to type. He can type 15 words per minute. How long will
it take him to type his 90-word essay?
#105:
If you eat a pizza and a half in a day and a half, how many pizzas will you
eat in one week?
#106:
You have blue pants, green pants, a red shirt, an orange shirt, and a yellow
shirt. How many different outfits can you make?
#107:
You gave the cashier two twenty dollar bills for an item that costs $14.74.
How much change will you get?
#108:
There are 30 legs in my backyard. I’m counting dogs and kids. How many
dogs and kids are in the yard?
#109:
In Mckenzie’s desk drawer, there are 18 yellow highlighters. There are 2
more pink highlighters than yellow highlighters, and there are 9 more blue
highlighters than pink highlighters. How many highlighters are in
Mckenzie's desk drawer in all?
#110:
Michelle saved $49.12 in June, $31.01 in July, and $22.73 in August. Then
Michelle spent $15.49 on school supplies and $59.02 on new clothes. How
much money does Michelle have left?
#111:
Draw two lines that are perpendicular. Draw two intersecting lines. Draw
two pairs of parallel lines. Draw a line segment. Draw a ray. Draw a
triangle. Mark the vertices.
#112:
James started practicing his guitar at 1:12 p.m. He practiced for 37 minutes.
What time did he finish his session?
#113:
Which is the better buy: 3 candy bars for $1.00 or 2 candy bars for 45
cents?
#114:
An analog clock shows the hour hand between the six and seven with the
minute hand on the one. What time is it? What time will it be in 55
minutes? What type of angle is formed by the hands?
#115:
2/3 = ? = ?
#116:
Write two more fractions that are equivalent to 2/3.